Colorado Ballet opens 2009-2010 season with Colorado-inspired All Pointes West program and tour

On Sept. 11, Colorado Ballet will open its 49th season with a lively Colorado-themed program that will be presented in four Colorado cities throughout the coming fall. All Pointes West begins with Lynne Taylor-Corbett’s Great Galloping Gottschalk. Next on the program will be the third act pas de deux from Marius Petipa’s Sleeping Beauty featuring the wedding pas de deux, followed by Dwight Rhoden’s Ave Maria. The program will conclude with Agnes de Mille’s Rodeo. The four-city tour is a result of Colorado Ballet’s receipt of the 2009 Colorado Masterpieces Award, funded by the Colorado Council on the Arts. Beginning at the Newman Center for the Performing Arts at the University of Denver, the Company will then head to Colorado Springs, Fort Collins and Pueblo. Colorado Ballet will use the $55,000 award to introduce Coloradoans to the best of their cultural and artistic legacy within the state. Colorado Ballet Artistic Director Gil Boggs created All Pointes West around Colorado’s rich heritage in the arts. “We live in a state rich in history with a unique artistic perspective,” Boggs said. “I am looking forward to presenting a program that demonstrates how this distinctive viewpoint has played a role in the art of ballet and I guarantee that audiences are sure to be in awe of the artistry presented in this vivacious program.” All Pointes West opens with the Company premiere of Great Galloping Gottschalk, choreographed by Denver native Taylor-Corbett. Taylor-Corbett choreographed this light-hearted piece for Mikhail Baryshnikov at American Ballet Theatre in 1982. Set to music by composer Louis Moreau Gottschalk, Taylor-Corbett created this colorful ballet around six sections of Gottschalk’s folk-based music. The program continues with a pas de deux from the third act wedding scene in Petipa’s Sleeping Beauty, which was last presented by the Company in 2005. The program will then transition to the Company premiere of Rhoden’s emotionally charged Ave Maria. Both works are sure to display the great strength of the Company. “These works present both the diversity and the technical skill of our artists,” Boggs said. The program concludes with the Company revival of de Mille’s iconic Rodeo. Set to Aaron Copland’s infamous score, also entitled Rodeo, this work follows a young cowgirl on her quest to prove she is as good as any man working on the ranch and her pursuit for true love. Given its premiere in 1942 at the Metropolitan Opera House, Rodeo exemplifies the great American West. “Rodeo is a great masterpiece in dance and was inspired by the region in which we live, “ Boggs said. “I am thrilled to have our talented artists present this exciting work to Coloradoans.”